At a ceremony Saturday to mark the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, a 75-year-old woman survivor harshly criticized the Abe administration's decision to allow Japan to take part in conflicts overseas under the banner of collective self-defense.
Miyako Jodai's criticism just in front of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expresses a sense of crisis held by many atomic bombing sufferers and ordinary citizens that Japan may again follow the path of war now that the Abe administration has dropped the traditional government interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution, which had precluded Japan from exercising the right to militarily help an ally of Japan under attack even if Japan is not under attack.
Abe, his Cabinet members and all lawmakers should sincerely take heed of her criticism. It can be taken as both anger and a plea directed at politicians who have not personally experienced the horrors of war but are taking steps that shove aside the fundamental principle of postwar Japan that is embodied in Article 9 and the Preamble of the Constitution.
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